The Spooky Manor, September 1983
GDB friend Sue B. sent along some scans of photos that her father (Lou Perry) took back in 1983, featuring the Haunted Mansion. If you compare them to yesterday's photos, there are no obvious changes (maybe HBG2 will disagree!), at least from the angles we are seeing (yes, yes, the trees are bigger, don't give me any guff!). I know that things like the exterior queue and some of the tombstones were moved around. By punk kids, I'll bet! With long hair, snapping their gum and saying bad words!
All of those people have no idea that behind that façade, ghosts, goblins, and Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers all live together, sharing rent and taking turns cooking. Only the man with the light blue shirt has been on the ride, his hair has turned white from terror!
Wait a minute, did I see a face looking out from one of the windows?? It's probably just my imagination. I thought that the face had three eyes, which is ridiculous.
It sure doesn't look like there was much of a line for the Mansion. It was a walk-on! Purplish-pink seems to have been a fashionable color in 1983 - I remember my velvet suit in that hue. So comfy. Hey, I saw that face again! But by the time I wrote about it, it was gone.
When I win the Lottery for the fourth time (what can I say, I have the knack), I will buy land and build a house that looks just like this one. Then I will invite all of you over for dinner. A Zinger will be offered for dessert, of course!
THANK YOU, Lou and Sue!
14 comments:
Major-
It's so stately and grand -- how can the place be haunted-??
Thanks to Lou and Sue.
Ha! When the thumbnails came up I thought, "Oh no. Major's photos for today didn't get posted. These are the same ones from yesterday." But then I noticed a few differences and breathed a sigh of relief. Crisis averted!
More postcard-worthy pictures, this time from Lou Perry!
"I thought that the face had three eyes." Major, maybe what you saw was a sea monkey? They have three eyes. Although, sea monkeys are quite small, maybe half an inch. So that would be pretty hard to spot in a window from down below...... nevermind.
In the 3rd picture, the kid on the right is eating something-on-a-stick. It looks sorta like a corndog, but they don't sell corndogs in Disneyland, do they?
Wonderful photos, Mr. Perry. Thanks to Sue and Major.
Mmmmmm......Ziiiiinger! (Drooling from corner of mouth!)
A beautiful realistic manse still in the 1980’s. I have a handful of memories from my earliest Disneyland visits …. And one is of the Haunted Mansion at night … my uncles were freaking me out that someone was watching us from the upper windows pointing out the “traveling” candle light…. Once inside the attraction I thought my grandpa was steering us around through a real house in the DOOM BUGGY … not understanding it was a continuous chain with people ahead of us and behind us …. I was worried my grandpa wouldn’t know which way to go through the house and we would get lost inside!!….. and why was someone’s house inside Disneyland !?? By 1983 I was in high school and knew the Haunted Mansion perfectly…. I even won an award in our school district for a poem I wrote — about THE HAUNTED MANSION!! Thanks Major, Lou & Sue!!
Love these pics. And now the Haunted Mansion 'estate" has an obtrusive gift shop squeezed in tightly between the Haunted Mansion and Tiana's Bayou Adventure. I never cared for the fact that Splash Mountain was plopped next to the Haunted Mansion. Kind of killed the illusion of the Mansion being off by itself.
Thank you Sue and Lou for these great Haunted Mansion pics.
I love the Haunted Mansion, and the 80’s people. That traveling light effect was amazing and creepy, I remember it, but not clearly.
Great photos and a perfect follow-up to yesterday’s post.
Major, yes, they did cut down the Italian cypress trees to make way for a gift shop. Simply deplorable.
Thank you, Lou, Sue, and Major!
JG
Nanook, while there is a part of me that wishes that our Mansion looked decrepit and spooky on the outside, I love that it is so beautiful!
JB, I figured that posting two days of HM photos might be a lot, but who’s complaining? Sea monkeys have three eyes, SURE they do. I’ve seen the drawing, they have two eyes just like tiny humans. I think the kid might be eating a frozen banana, but it’s just a guess. They don’t sell corndogs at Disneyland?? I know they do at DCA.
TokyoMagic!, I liked the vanilla Zingers, while my brother liked the ones with some sort of berry jam in them!
Mike Cozart, I wish I’d seen that traveling candle effect, I’ve read about it in various places (such as the Long-forgotten blog), and it seems so simple and cool. Why would they discontinue it? When the Mansion first opened, kids at school told lots of tales about it, making it seem WAY more terrifying than it actually was. Which meant that I was super scared the first time I went on it! A poem about the Haunted Mansion? What rhymes with “mansion”??
K. Martinez, oh, didn’t you know that authentic southern plantations had gift shops? It’s true! It’s all a part of the magic and dreams and wishes and such, so don’t you fret.
JG, I think that the traveling light was done with a rotating drum with an opening in it, and a light inside it. It’s been a while. How hard could it be to get that up and running again? Something for the crowds to look for while waiting in the queue (although I think I also read that the ride only has a “virtual queue” now, ugh).
Ah, the most wonderful haunt in the world! (Isn't that a Christmas song?)
Unfortunately it was closed for a scheduled "theming degrade" when I was there in January.
I'm pretty sure the traveling light still works at Walt Disney World. I noticed it years ago one night when we were just walking by the mostly deserted area. In other words, the perfect situation. Imagineering used to be art. Just saying...
In the 3rd photo, I see the older gent in sunglasses checking his watch wondering if he has to run back to the parking lot to feed the meter. KS
Corn Dogs are sold at “the little red wagon” on Main Street USA and THE STAGEDOOR CAFE in Frontierland .
The Disneyland traveling light was an a popular effect like the firefly effect in pirates …. Very simple mechanic with a wonderfully effective result. Around the time Fantasmic debuted the traveling mansion light worked sporadically… sometimes it was there sometimes not. Then when the extended riverbank lightning effects of Fantastic were used I think Disneyland maintenance abandoned it since the harsh Fantasmic lighting made the traveling light almost impossible to see.
The effect was wonderfully spooky … knowing someone or something was quietly moving around inside the old mansion. Windows in the attic and second floor featured a plastic bucket on a motorized turntable .. a vertical cut the length of the bucket height allowed a flickering lightbulb to pass through ( exactly like a lighthouse!!) each window was activated in sequence spaced apart several minutes giving the the effect that something with a candle or lamp was slowly passing by the mansion’s upper windows .
Florida and Tokyo have this feature too as well as a mysterious green light that sporadically passed behind the dirty grey glass of the mansion’s conservatory windows ….
"What rhymes with “mansion”??"
I think that I shall never see
Another haunted cypress tree
Since those dimwits did the expansion
At my beloved Disneyland Haunted Mansion
Mike, please share your poem with us. If you say you don't remember it, we won't believe you. :oP
Thanks for all the nice comments, I'll pass them on to my dad.
Thanks Lou & Sue & Major for the great photos of my 2nd favorite attraction (after POTC), especially if there is not a "nightmare" of an overlay. Sad to hear about all the recent changes- gift shop, landscaping, etc.
Nice poem Sue. Major- bat "stanchion" also rhymes with mansion...
-DW
Relaxed people! Seated folks! Some casually strolling into the Mansion; These Are golden oldies. Ofcourse they serve corndogs in Disneyland, easily the worlds best corndogs by a mile! But that kid is enjoying a frozen, not “Frozen” Banana. Whatever happened to them? I always got one back in the day (you could chip a tooth if you didn’t give them a minute to soften up a a little). Mmm, chocolate coating, peanut bits. Haunted by the tasty memories.
MS
stu29573, I’ve experienced having the Mansion closed when I was at the park, it’s always a huge disappointment. For a while I seemed to time it so that it was being redone for the Nightmare Before Christmas version. Which I like, but it isn’t as good as the original. Wow, if the traveling light works at WDW, I am very jealous.
KS, can you imagine the chaos if people had to feed parking meters?
Mike Cozart, oh right, I actually declined eating at the Little Red Wagon - my stomach was already “on the edge” and I was worried that a corndog could potentially be very greasy. I truly don’t understand why the traveling light effect isn’t still used at Disneyland. It’s not complex or expensive - and so what if it isn’t noticeable during Fantasmic? There’s a lot more non-Fantasmic nighttime. Come on Disney!
Lou and Sue, hey that’s pretty good!
DW, you can’t go wrong with either “Pirates” or the Haunted Mansion. I think I lean toward the Mansion as my favorite, but it’s very close. I’m just drawn to the spooky theme!
MS, it’s almost shocking to not see a long queue leading into the gates of the Mansion grounds. Those were the days! If I’d lived close enough to the park, I could see myself riding that attraction multiple times during the day. I do like to do at least one nighttime ride, it just feels different (even though it is always nighttime inside!). Ha ha, frozen bananas, everyone in my family loved them except me. I’m weird that way.
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